Mistake #6 Think Short-Term
“Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasure for long-term values.”
- Joshua L. Liebman
Next year I am going to turn 30, as a married man. Three months from now, this is going to be the new year. But I already started formulating my plan for next year. Plan ahead, work ahead, has already been built in my soul throughout the years.
I want you to know the paragraph above took me less than a minute to write. But it took me almost 10 years to learn. Being a writer, being a programmer, being a husband, wouldn’t happen without I first thought about it, and most importantly, worked on it.
Every so often, we don’t set goals because we failed too much in the past. Failure after failure helps the lizard brain grow stronger and stronger. The lizard brain encourages us to look for instant gratification like gossip. We feel good gossiping at the moment but then feel bad about inaction for personal development the next second. There are many forms of instant gratification: one-night stands, gossip, taking drugs, heavy drinking, etc.
Pause for a moment, and think. And ask yourself if you are doing any of these.
They are the nutrition of your lizard brain which keeps you away from your dream.
Long-term thinking comes in to help when the lizard brain tries to paralyze our neurons to act. But what is long-term thinking precisely? You might ask. OK. I will tell you my secret sauce.
First and foremost, I have to say I am not a genius. If you are one, please go away. You don’t need my book. This is a book for ordinary people who want to achieve extraordinary results. I was not born with the innate genius to invent the secret sauce. Julien Breteau, my accountability partner in personal development, recommended the sauce to me.
How to Conduct Your Own Annual Review written by Best Selling Author Chris Guillebeau.
His idea is to create a roadmap for the year ahead - not a rigid daily schedule, but an overall outline of what matters to you and what you hope to achieve the next year.
Last year, I did the annual review that I publicly talked about on my blog. This year I created one again. And I modified some of the framework Chris had taught to adapt to my personal goals, because I know the success of my personal annual review is dependent on only one person - me.
Likewise, the success of your personal review is dependent on only one person - YOU.
Last year, I dreamed of being a writer. I failed to write the blog post on a weekly basis, but succeeded in finishing writing two e-books for the dream-job-recipe-in-the-21st-century series. Brick by Brick and The Game, the one that you are reading now.
Last year, I dreamed of being a writer. And add one more career path or change my career entirely. I ended up being accepted into the General Assembly as a student to learn programming.
Last year, I dreamed of having a new chapter of my life. My big day is in December, and I am going to get married to my beloved - Isabel Chan.
One year from now, who do you want to be?
Ten years from now, who do you want to be?
I have no idea.
Because the success of your personal review is dependent on only one person - YOU. Personal development is the principle of life and career; YOU have to embody it wholeheartedly.
Last but not least, if you finished reading my story and want to reach out, email me at aero@aerowong.com for any reason. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Know More: About the Cover
Or read the table of contents: The Game